A Play of Priority
by greysnyper
Summary: After a while, one just stops looking...


_After a while, one just stops looking.___

_I mean, after clone attempts. After seeking out and negotiating with frightening powers-that-be. After trading and bartering souls. After praying and waiting. After many, many things--both shameful and noble, one just stops looking.___

_It also helps to have family, and home, and one's own life itself to tap you on the shoulder and say "hey, you'll lose more if you don't turn around..."___

_A day without hoping turns to a week. Pretty easily, a month goes by with the help of the right kind of distractions. You could never really let go of who you are, and who you are is someone who can't be idle in the face of another's adversity.___

_Excuse yourself by believing that it's what he'd want. It's exactly what he'd expect, even. You wouldn't be you without it.___

_You had your hands full. And you never really did forget. But you had your hands full..._

--

A few years. An eye blink. People had come back to life through less grand and flashy methods. Sometimes, it happened all of the time.

Superman doesn't live on Earth anymore. Gotham has changed her Batman. Kon-El Kent returns and finds a world very different from that which he had left behind.

The shock doesn't really hit him, since his first realization had been that the universe still existed. Holy crap! He had saved the damn thing after all! The feeling that comes with that is pretty cool. There are names and people on his mind--catch up to be had.

Yet things change in some corners, and stay the same in others. He has to deflect a meteor before even reaching the atmosphere; and in meeting up with Kara during the ordeal, he learns that Kal should have been the first to notice the threat--making Earth's safety still his priority. The other had been strangely absent here. An investigation meant tackling sticky New Kryptonian politics, and being the genetic match of New Krypton's would-be-genocidist didn't work well in Kon's favour--he finds out.

It becomes weeks before he _could_ return to Earth, and a yacht rescue; fire rescue; Luthor-avoidance; riot wrap-up; prevented assassination; Luthor-avoidance; giant robot destruction; NASA volunteer-mission; bank heist interruption; Luthor-avoidance...later...

The world obviously recognizes his return. The slight unease regarding Kryptonians does not extend to a favoured hero who had died long before the New Krypton incident. The public welcomes him. In short order, villains surrender rather than shooting at Kon, or running...

Respect, which he had time enough to enjoy in passing.

After all, there were more meteors, yachts, fires, riots, assassins, robots, science experiments, bank heists and...well, Luthor. Always good ol' "dad."

The weeks turn into a few weeks. Secret identity planning, while he chills out in Smallville (poor Pa) between crisis'.

The Titans have yet to extend an invitation, which bothers Kon only for a second or two between work--from what he can tell, the membership is drastically different. The Justice League drops a line now and again, mainly for brief team-ups. Batman never makes up a part of those encounters...

Odder still, since Kon does not recall hearing any growl or warning regarding his short exposures in Gotham. His moments in that territory had always been promptly dealt with, and while keeping an ear out for Bat-chatter, had received none. He expects admonishment to come from some quarter soon.

The lack of such had even been stranger than the dearth of welcome from Robin...

"We need peaceful negotiations between Earth and New Krypton," Kal explains, an encounter later. "I think you and your cousin would be fine ambassadors to that cause."

Kara beams. Kon--naturally--feels the humbling awe at the praise. Dying may have changed him, Kon thinks, since he starkly recalls being annoyed or embarrassed by anything Kal had to say about him. Here, he is honoured. Different...

"We can take turns checking back on Earth," Kara elbows him, after the meeting. "The League's just getting itself sorted out and we still have Mon-El."

He'd been alive for over a month. There had been very, _very_ little social time. Kon feels her comments trigger a question he had lost and buried several times over since returning. "And Batman?"

She has a stray strand of hair dangling across her face, and when she tilts her head and adopts a grave look, Kara appears quite cute. Kon wonders if he could have asked something less serious--like something about her.

"I'm sorry Kon, but Batman died." Any irony, and she choses to ignore it. "I don't know a lot of the details, and I always felt like I wasn't allowed to ask. There's a new Batman now. I think it's Nightwing."

Kon experiences a fleeting concern between her explanations, wondering if Tim could have taken up the mantle. He's relieved to have that image pushed aside, but it's still a distant concern. The whole conversation seems distant, and unimportant. He should ask her about her secret identity, and whether or not she's had any interesting adventures since he's been...

Shaking his head, Kon _tells_ himself to prioritize. Batman's dead. Gotham's different now, and this completely explains why Tim hasn't yet tried to contact him.

Hell, Tim's resourceful and if Tim had the chance, the other would likely have come forth to _meet_ Kon at some junction. Could have creeped in and scared the shit out of the clone.

Things have changed, and Tim could be overwhelmed. Could be distracted with the death of his hero and mentor. Kon should take initiative and drop in. He should visit and see if Tim's okay. He should--

Kara frowns and Kon hears it too. There's screaming and sirens. If he's right, the trouble is in Zimbabwe.

"Botswana," Kara corrects, moving just a hair faster than her cousin.

They're off, and the resolution and clean-up takes them long into the next evening.

--

tbc


End file.
